Panel embossing and printing process



Dec. 30, 1969 DREAZY ET AL PANEL EMBOSSIN'G AND PRINTING PROCESS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 17. 1967 FRANCIS E. DREAZY vmrou 1.. KREEGER JR.

INVENTORS FIG. 1

BUCKHORN, BLORE, KLARQUIST & SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS Dec. 30, 1969 D ET AL PANEL EMBOSSING A ND PRINTING PROCESS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 17. 1967 FIG. 2

BUCKHORN, BLORE, KLARQUIST 8. SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS Dec. 30, 1969 F. E. DREAZY T L PANEL EMBOSSI NG AND PRINTING PROCESS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 17, 1967 BUCKHORN, BLORE, KLARQUIST & SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS Dec. 30, 1969 F, DREAZY ET AL PANEL EMBOSSING AND PRINTING PROCESS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Oct. 17, 1967 4 FRANCIS E. DREAZY VINTON L. KREEGER,JR.

INVENTORS BUCKHORN, BLORE, KLARQUIST & SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS United States Patent US. Cl. 1178 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Panels of hardboard or inexpensive plywood are provided with grain pattern of ornamental wood by filling original panel surface and thereafter embossing pore pattern of desired wood in panel and successively printing panel with grain and highlight patterns to secure faithful, lifelike appearance.

Background of the invention Because of the attractive appearance of the wood grain of various hardwoods, such as maple, oak, hickory, walnut and the like, paneling of such woods is greatly admired. However, there is a limited supply of such woods and paneling of the natural woods, either as planks or in the form of plywood, is relatively expensive. Accordingly, much effort has been devoted to providing paneling made of less expensive and more readily available wood material and upon which the grain patterns of such desired woods have been reproduced by various processes. However, the various processes used heretofore have not produced panels which have a natural appearance. Difficult as it is to describe, the natural woods have a lifelike appearance, whereas the simulated panels produced heretofore have, by and large, a dead appearance.

Summary of the invention The present invention comprises a process by which a panel formed of hardboard or a plywood of an inexpensive wood, such as lauan, which'has no distinct graining, may be provided with a surface having the life-like appearance of a panel of a natural wood of distinctive grain. The base panel is sanded and sealed and any surface pores or imperfections filled and the panel thereafter provided with a pigmented ground coat to mask completely the base panel. The panel is thereafter embossed to form therein indented pores which normally appear in the wood to be simulated. Thereafter, a series of printing steps are performed upon the panel so as to produce the shadows and highlights as well as the general and detailed grain pattern that appears in the wood to be simulated. Upon completion of the printing steps a filler is applied to the pores to impart color to the embossed pores and finally a clear top finish is applied to the panel Drawings In the accompanying drawings, the process of the invention is shown in connection with the manufacture of a typical panel and in a typical simulated wood grain pattern. It should be apparent that the graining pattern will be varied as necessary to simulate the Wood pattern which it is desired to reproduce.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the pattern of pores embossed in a section of a panel to be finished to simulate a wall made up of planks of walnut.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 show the pattern successively overprinted on the same section of the panel.

Description of preferred embodiments The process of the invention will first be described in the treatment of a plywood panel such as one formed of m CC lauan, a wood obtained principally from Philippine forests, and sometimes called Philippine mahogany. Lauan is relatively inexpensive, but lacks a distinctive grain pattern, and, thus, does not provide a particularly decorative surface for Wall paneling. Wood, other than lauan, lacking a distinctive grain can, of course, also be treated in the manner of the invention.

The panel to be treated is first sanded as with a grit belt sander so as to provide a surface on the panel that is smooth to the touch. The panel is then coated with a sealer such as a polyvinyl acetate water emulsion, or a polyvinyl chloride emulsion. The sealer acts as a stabilizer to minimize checking of the wood and also causes the surface to assume a uniform receptivity to the subsequent fillers and coatings to be applied thereto. The sealer coat is dried as by passing it through an infrared oven, and thereafter the surface of the panel is filled, preferably with a polyvinyl acetate water emulsion pigmented filler, so that the natural pores of the wood are filled and a smooth planar surface is obtained upon the panel. A lacquer based filler may also be used but the water base filler has better adhesion and there is less likelihood of it flaking out from the pores. The filler is then oven dried.

If the panel is to be of the plank type it may then be grooved in the conventional manner and the grooves prime coated with a base pigmented paint. The panel is then sanded with a 240 E grit belt sander, or similar grit.

Next, a pigmented ground coat is applied to the panel so as to mask completely the natural color of the wood. The ground coat is pigmented with the basic color of the wood to be simulated. Various ground coat materials may be used and, preferably, the coat is an alkyd resin type paint. The ground coat may be applied in any suitable manner, but is conveniently applied by a transfer roll process with two coating rollers in tandem to ensure a complete and uniform coverage. After application of the ground coat it may be dried in a conventional hot air oven or infra-red oven or other suitable type.

The panel is next embossed so as to form therein a substantial proportion of the pores which appear in the natural wood to be simulated. It is not necessary to reproduce all of the pore indentations which would ordinarily appear, but a substantial proportion should be formed in the surface of the panel. Such pores are embossed by passing the panel beneath an embossing roller formed with projections to impress in the panel the desired pores in the natural grain patterns as shown in FIG. 1 which is a reproduction of the pattern of pores embossed in a portion of a panel which is to simulate hickory paneling. Portions of the graining of three adjacent panels, 10, 12 and 14, are shown in FIG. 1. The dividing lines, 11, 13-, between the embossed patterns of adjacent panels will be positioned in the area of any grooves previously formed (but not here shown) in the panel. Positioned at 16 in FIG. 1 is an alignment indicator to show the point of alignment of the various printing and embossing steps portrayed herein. Such an indicator is not, of course, applied to the panels.

Following the embossing step, the panel is subjected to a series of printing steps so as to apply to the surface of the panel the grain and texture pattern of the wood to be simulated.

Refering to FIG. 2, the panel is first printed with a glaze print comprising varying tones in brush-like streaks so as to provide the panel with the highlights and darker spots which appear in a panel of simulated wood. If the panel to be reproduced is to simulate adjacent planks, the glaze coat will provide varying amounts of ink to the different plank portions of the panel so that some of it will appear of light grain and others of dark as occurs in natural wood. For example, in FIG. 2, the portion of the panel indicated at 18 has relatively little ink applied thereto and, therefore, this area will be of lighter color than other plank areas; the area indicated at 20 has the ink applied more uniformly and in greater quantity, and the plank area at 22 has an intermediate amount.

Following the glaze print step the panel is subjected to a brush print of the general grain pattern of the planks of the wood to be simulated, such brush print being shown by itself in FIG. 3. This brush print provides a shadow background for the detailed grain pattern.

The final print is detailed grain pattern as is shown in FIG. 4, and this includes additional representation of the pore pattern appearing in the simulated Wood. All of the prints are in registry With the embossed pores shown in FIG. 1, and are such that a faithful representation of the pore and grain pattern and shading of planks of simulated Wood will appear in the finished panel. The printing steps are conveniently carried out by passing the panel beneath a tandem series of printing rolls geared together so that the printing may be maintained in registry with the embossed pore pattern.

After the printing steps are completed, the embossed pores are filled with a dark filler material and which may be accomplished by applying a pigmented top coat to the entire panel and then removing the coat from the unembrossed portion by reverse printer which will leave the ink within the pores. Next, a clear top finish material, which may be a catalysed alkyd urea resin or similar clear finishing material, is applied. Finally, the panel is passed through a suitable oven, such as an infra-red oven to cure all the finish coats. The resulting panel has the appearance of a finished natural wood and is virtually indistinguishable from the natural wood.

The process of the invention may also be applied to dense lignocellulose panels such as hardboard. A hardboard panel is first sanded to cut away the hard, glossy surface formed in the press. Removal of 0.002" to 0.004" is usually sufficient. A ground coat of a Water based pigmented filler is then applied and thereafter the panel embossed and printed in the same manner as a plywood panel. Again, the completed panel when placed upon a wall has a virtually indistinguishable appearance from a wall formed of planks of the simulated Wood.

We claim:

1. The method of producing a natural appearing grain design of wood upon the surface of a wood or like lignocellulose material having no distinct graining comprising the steps of:

sanding the surface of the material to be treated to render it smooth to the touch, A

coating said surface with a sealer to stabilize such surface and minimize checking thereof,

filling the natural surface pores and indentations so as to form a substantially planar surface,

applying a ground coat to said panel to mask completely the color of said material, said ground coat being pigmented with the basic color of the wood to be simulated,

embossing said panel to impress therein a substantial proportion of the indented pores which would normally appear in a panel of the wood to be simulated,

printing upon said surface in registry with said pore pattern a glaze coat comprising varying tones in brush-like streaks so as to provide the highlights and darker spots appearing in the panel of said simulated wood,

printing upon said surface in registry with said pore pattern a brush print of the general grain pattern of the wood to be simulated to provide a shadow background for the detailed grain pattern,

printing in registry with said embossed pores a detailed grain pattern including additional representations of the pore pattern appearing in said simulated Wood so that a substantially faithful representation of the pore and grain pattern of the simulated wood will appear upon said panel,

applying a dark filler to the embossed pores, and

applying a clear top finish material to said panel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said material is wood.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said material is hardboard.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 939,016 11/1909 Hall et a1 1178 XR 1,416,325 5/1922 Berry 11745 XR 1,773,948 8/1930 Casto ll7-45 XR 1,971,067 8/1934 Fess.

2,016,567 10/1935 Zinser l178 2,069,228 2/ 1937 Eichstadt. 2,877,588 3/1959 Ernst 117--8 .DAVID KLEIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

